HMDT Music News

MONDAY 26 AUGUST – THURSDAY 29 AUGUSTat Mossbourne Academy, E5 8JY

Come and join us for a special four-day course focusing on the masterworks of one of America’s greatest composers – Duke Ellington.

You will develop the following skills:

Playing from direct, professional transcriptions taken from the original recordings.

Learning the rich history behind each piece of music being played, and the band behind it.

Gaining experience playing as part of a large jazz ensemble.

Building confidence reading and interpreting big band charts.

Socialising and meeting like-minded, driven young jazz musicians.

The four days will culminate with a relaxed performance for all friends and family.

The course will be at Mossbourne Academy, E5 8JY, and is specifically for sax, trumpet, trombone and rhythm section players (approx. grade 5+, no audition required) though places are limited (especially for rhythm section players), so book now to reserve a place and avoid disappointment.

The full four-day course costs £179.00Payable when you accept the place.

Discounted fees £159.00 available for students who attend the Jazz Blues Course or the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy.

APPLY NOW WHILE PLACES STILL REMAIN!

The Music Treehouse programme at HMDT Music’s Saturday Programme, offers younger disabled children access to high quality interactive music making, boosting social skills and confidence, and offering pathways to learning through songs and participatory musical activities. The relationship between singing and speech (in the context of people with special needs) is well researched, and we find there are linguistic breakthroughs among some of the children as they become more familiar and more confident with the songs. We focus on simple tasks, encouraging the young people to join in, and even lead activities, and there are no barriers in terms of ability. For us as a team of skilled musicians we keep musical standards high, even if words and melodies have to be easy enough to encourage participation. But the combination of keyboard, percussion, flute and guitar to accompany the songs, as well as the team’s skills in improvisation, mean that we can change soundworlds in an instant, and maintain focus throughout the sessions.

As the year has progressed we have seen huge changes in the attention levels of some individuals, as they grasp the fact that making music is both fun and empowering, and that they are free to take part at any level. We try to make every moment of a session joyful, and we introduce different elements to increase stimulation, including puppets and movement work. It’s really a whole body, whole mind, whole voice approach. Some children are non-verbal/vocal, but they often have acute understanding, and certainly can participate to the same level as vocal students, even if their participation is expressed in different ways. When percussion is introduced, every child can contribute equally, and the combination of sound and rhythm changes the dynamic of the room, often dramatically, with individuals often becoming confident enough to lead sections.

This year the overarching theme has been the animal world. We have made from scratch songs about hounds, birds, geese, moles, tigers and lions. Puppets help tell the stories of these creatures, and we always bring animals to life through movement work as well as sound. Often, we travel from one animal environment to another with the help of a bus song. And each session begins with a familiar hello song, as well as songs to warm up the body, and get us in the mood to make music. The session ends with a bespoke goodbye song, which is calming and which sends the participants away on a quiet note. Our autistic children respond particularly well to these more calming activities.

The One Spirit project has enjoyed continued success over the last 12 months delivering its 10th year of music based and resettlement focused projects across 3 institutions: HMYOI Feltham (A & B Side), HMYOI Cookham Wood and HMP Highdown, as well as in communities around Greater and Central London.

With a monthly presence in all three institutions One Spirit has engaged 177 young people over the course of the year in its weeklong RESIDENCY projects, 1to1 IN-CUSTODY MENTORING sessions or 1to1 THROUGH THE GATE MENTORING sessions in the community post release. Of the 177 young people who participated 51 have accessed one or more strands of the project. 5 young people have been released during the year and accessed our Through the Gate program, making the number of those currently working with One Spirit in the community 37.

The number young people serving sentences for violent crimes has increased since last year. At times we have delivered to groups of participants half of whom are serving sentences for murder. This has made the ‘classroom’ a more highly charged environment, not so much because of potential conflict between participants (only one incident in the year) but because of the underlying frustrations, fears and general mental health of the young people. We continue to create ever more breathing room in the activities we deliver and keep well being embedded in our primary targets. This year residency and in-custody mentoring participants said:

“Coming here is just calm… like de-stressing if that makes sense.” Participant at HMYOI Feltham

“It made me feel more confident because I was working with other young people and it made me confident because of help from staff.” Participant HMYOI Cookham Wood

From evidence and feedback collected from participants: 92% said they felt more confident; 92% felt better about the future; 63% felt more able to manage anger/frustration and 58% said they felt more motivated as a result of participating.

An external evaluation has been carried out over the year by Dr Anthony Gunter (Senior Lecturer Criminology UEL) for which he has observed One Spirit in residency at Cookham Wood and Feltham and working in the community in London and the South East. The report analyses the data collected and outcomes observed during the period but more importantly aims to tell ‘the story behind the data’, with first hand observations, direct feedback and interviews supporting and explaining the figures and ultimately telling ‘how and why One Spirit works’.

One Spirit ‘through the gate’ has worked with a total of 37 young people and young adults over the course of the last year. 13 young people are accessing the programme at least once a month, engaged in activities from making/recording music to getting help from One Spirit to set up their own business or more generally search for jobs or prepare for interviews. Just under half of the 37 are more occasional attendees on the programme, making contact, for example, for specific advice regarding a recording contract (in one case), setting up a limited company (in another) or just to catch up. One Spirit mentors have also helped several young men recently released to prepare for and access apprenticeship programs in construction and catering/hospitality. Predictable, but nevertheless interesting to observe is how much more mature participants become around the age of 19/20. The reoffending rate amongst the through the gate group of 37 young men is 10%. 33 out of 37 have stayed out of custody for 6 months or more, with 25 out of custody for longer than 12 months. Of the 4 young men who were recalled to custody 2 were 17, 1 was 18 and 1 was 21.

58% of those accessing the Through the Gate programme are in employment and 29% are in further education / training.

Going into 2019 One Spirit will continue its work in all 3 prisons with some exciting developments. At HMYOI Cookham Wood we will explore working more with prisoners accessing ROTL (Release on Temporary Licence) in a bid to create ever more consistency for young people during their transition from custody to community. Demand across the prison has grown in general throughout the year and One Spirit and Cookham Wood are looking at various ways to increase access to the programme in the prison during 2019. At HMYOI Feltham B Side One Spirit will develop its mentoring programme in a new bespoke space on Education B Side, working with the Learning and Skills department to consolidate and lend specialisation to the Employment and Resettlement offering.

“I was transfixed with how one of the young men was connecting with the HMDT tutor. There are many females working here, so the fact that the HMDT tutor was a man and spoke the lingo was really good. The HMDT team had the young men focused and engaged for the entire session. In the team meeting I spoke about how impressed I was with the One Spirit project and the work HMDT were doing with the young men.” Female Staff Tutor HMYOI Cookham Wood.

Our first National Commemoration Days were launched in 4 schools to 1000 children. Students participated in art workshops, learning First World War songs, meeting an Indian Soldier costumed interpreter and exploring artefacts. The days culminated in moving commemoration services bringing together all the activities from the day including laying poppy wreaths and placing newly made medals onto barbed wire in remembrance alongside army drill and songs.

Berger School

The team were amazing, helping the children explore each activity and the range of sessions gave each child an opportunity to play to their strengths. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves

Teacher

As always with HMDT Music, it was thoughtful and meaningful and gave us all a lot to think about

Student

The WW1 workshop day was very interesting and the artefacts were really unique. It was a once in a life experience

Student

I really enjoyed the singing workshop because the warm up and songs were fun and catchy

Student

The best day in Year 5!

Student

I was looking forward to it all week but it was even better than I thought it would be!

On the 28 October 2018 The I Can Sing! Music Theatre Programme Seniors and Richard Sumitro performed excerpts from Trench Brothers to a crowd of thousands (including the Mayor himself), at the Mayor’s Diwali Festival at Trafalgar Square.

Alongside the performance, The Royal British Legion showcased the Indian section of our Trench Brothers Exhibition at the Festival.

We were very honoured to be part of this great event – a fitting end to the Trench Brothers project.

The Music Teacher

This was a truly incredible and moving performance that serves as a fitting tribute to the soldiers whose stories are too often left out of the narrative of the war.

On the 17 October 2018 HMDT Music’s Trench Brothers was performed to great acclaim, at Brighton Dome to audiences of around 1,500 people. The finale of four year’s work around the country, it brought together songs written with schools in London, Lancashire and the South East in a unique collaboration of musical genres alongside the core music theatre work by composers Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor set to a libretto by our Creative Director Tertia Sefton-Green.

It was performed by children from 7 local schools, Seniors from our own I Can Sing! programme and top artists Cleveland Watkiss, Damian Thantrey and Richard Sumitro accompanied by students from our Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, our CYMH tutors and the Jasdeep Singh Degun Indian Sitar and Tabla duo.

The Music Teacher

Tertia Sefton-Green’s libretto masterfully engages its adult audience while ensuring that the content remains accessible and understandable to the young people taking part. Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor’s music help to elevate the performance into something wonderful to experience – each character’s culture is reflected in their music and it is a joy to hear different genres and influences being woven together to reinforce the narrative’s themes of camaraderie.

London Jazz Review

An affecting music theatre work……. ‘letters home’ …. have all the poignancy, humour, sadness, bitterness and gritty historical detail that you would expect.
HMDT Music have form for taking on projects with big themes.

Ahead of HMDT Music’s Trench Brothers premier on Wednesday 17th October at Brighton Dome, award-winning Kamila Shamsie has written this wonderful article about not only the history behind the project but also its relevance for today.

National Commemoration Days : Armistice Centenary 2018

HMDT Music presents a unique opportunity to commemorate the centenary of Armistice Day with a one day whole school ever offering a series of activities and guest visits. The event is inspired by its successful Trench Brothers project commemorating the contribution of ethic minority soldiers in the First World War.

The day includes:

Artefacts handling sessions looking at weapons, uniforms and memorabilia from the First World War;

An Indian Soldier costumed interpreter sharing his experiences of life in the trenches on the Front Line;

Artist workshops to create a visual and creative response to the First World War;

Singing sessions to learn First World War songs;

Online toolkits to research specific soldiers leading to students writing Letter Home from the Front;

Access to the Trench Brothers Education Zone offering contextual information and 90 lesson plans and activities linked to the curriculum;

A commemoration event bringing together all the elements explored during the day.

Available 5 – 16 November 2018.

Cost: FROM £1,500 Dependent on school size.

To book your place contact: info@hmdt.org.uk or call HMDT Music on 020 8882 8825

A new music theatre work commemorating ethnic minority soldiers in the First World War

Music: Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor

Libretto: Tertia Sefton-Green

A new music theatre work commemorating the contributions of ethnic minority soldiers during the First World War through music, theatre and puppetry, bringing to life their hopes and fears, their longing for home, their camaraderie, courage and valour.

Directed by Clare Whistler and Freya Wynn-Jones to Neil Irish’s designs, it features over 250 children from local primary schools in Brighton, Newhaven, Lewes and Seaford alongside acclaimed jazz vocalist of the year and MOBO nominated Cleveland Watkiss and ‘superb’ (The Times) opera singer Damian Thantrey.

Renowned jazz composer Julian Joseph and award-winning composer Richard Taylor are joined by composers Michael Betteridge, Jenny Gould, Matthew King, James Redwood and Omar Shahryar in a unique collaboration drawing together work developed with schools across London, Lancashire and the South East since 2014.

This powerful centenary event is made all the more poignant by its location in Brighton Dome, which served as an Indian Military Hospital during the war.

The Trench Brothers Exhibition will be at Newhaven Fort from 4 August to 5 November offering a creative response to the untold stories of ethnic minority soldiers in the First World War. For more information on the interactive exhibition, please see ourEXHIBITION PAGE.

On 4 July, HMDT Music’s Project Trench Brothers, written by Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor to a libretto by Tertia Sefton-Green, was performed as part of the Lichfield Festival at the National Memorial Arboretum’s unique outdoor setting of remembrance. The spirit of remembrance was well and truly alive for this performance which featured MOBO nominated Jazz Singer Cleveland Watkiss, opera singer Damian Thantrey, puppeteers Anna Pool and Jane O’Donoghue, and 120 local school children.

In the lead up to the performance, the school children had taken part in a series of workshops and rehearsals based around World War 1, and teachers worked with over 90 lesson plans, all linked in to the National Curriculum, to further enrich and expand the student’s knowledge. Students had the opportunity to ‘meet an Indian World War 1 Soldier’ in a session led by Ranj Nagra; handle and ask questions about WW1 artefacts with John Meredith, make puppet soldiers led by the Little Angel Theatre and even compose their own letter song ready for the performance at the NMA with composers Jenny Gould and John Webb. On top of this, they also took part in two full day rehearsals with Freya Wynn-Jones (Director) and Jenny Gould (Musical Director) prior to transferring to the NMA stage!

The performance itself was a huge success and a credit to the young people and the whole team – but you don’t need to take our word for it! A reviewhas been published on the Lichfield Festival’s website, written by Oliver Gill, a young person who attended the performance at the National Memorial Arboretum.

HMDT Music and Trench Brothers has also taken part in other events at the NMA – as part of the British Legions’ Youth Thank You project to which two of our Indian Costumed Interpreters ran inspiring drill sessions, and our designers held ‘Design a Memorial’ workshops.

Also appearing at the NMA was the Trench Brothers exhibition. The exhibition, a creative response to the untold stories of minority ethnic soldiers in World War I, which was visited during the month of July by over 24,000 people.

Do you enjoy singing, dancing and acting?

Come and join HMDT Music for a one-off I Can Sing! Taster on Saturday 22 September, and experience the excitement of music theatre, led by our fantastic team of professional artists.

The morning will offer prospective I Can Sing! students the chance to watch a performance by current students, gain new skills, build confidence and make new friends!

Sessions will include singing, dancing and drama and require no previous experience. I Can Sing! is for ages 5 – 14 and draws on repertoire that includes classic Broadway numbers alongside our original commissions.

What are the timings?

The taster students are invited to join the first session of the term (22 September) with our I Can Sing! Groups according to their school year.

SUMMER JAZZ COURSE FOR BEGINNERS

TUESDAY 28 AUGUST – FRIDAY 31 AUGUST 2018

10.00AM – 5.00PM at Bridge Academy, E2 8BA

A unique, four-day course designed for students aged 9 – 14, who want to learn jazz – or more about jazz.

Using the methodology developed at the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, students will be introduced to the rich history and styles of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock and Charles Mingus through the focused study of a small number of classic jazz recordings. They will be taught how to access, appreciate and perform this great music through a series of inspiring workshops – and make firm friends in the process!

The course culminates in a relaxed and enjoyable performance at the end of the last day, open to all family and friends.

BIG BAND COURSE

Come and join us for a special four-day course focusing on the music and styles of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Students will learn the rich history behind the music; gain experience playing as part of a large jazz ensemble; build confidence reading Big Band charts and meet like-minded musicians in the process.

Each day will be split into three sessions:

Full Workshops

Sectionals

Jam Sessions

The four days will culminate with a relaxed performance for all friends and family.

The course will be at the home of JJJA, Bridge Academy, E2 8BA, and is specifically for sax, trumpet, trombone and rhythm section players (approx. grade 5 +, no audition required) though places are limited (especially for rhythm section players), so book now to reserve a place and avoid disappointment.

The full four-day course costs £179.00 – payable when you accept the place.

Discounted fees £159.00 available for students who attend Bridge Academy, the Jazz Blues Course or the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy.

A new music theatre work commemorating ethnic minority soldiers in World War One

Music: Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor

Words: Tertia Sefton-Green

A new music theatre work commemorating the contributions of ethnic minority soldiers during the First World War through music, theatre and puppetry, bringing to life their hopes and fears, their longing for home, their camaraderie, courage and valour.

Directed by Clare Whistler and Freya Wynn-Jones to Neil Irish’s designs, it features over 250 children from local primary schools in Brighton, Newhaven, Lewes and Seaford alongside acclaimed jazz vocalist of the year and MOBO nominated Cleveland Watkiss and ‘superb’ (The Times) opera singer Damian Thantrey.

Renowned jazz composer Julian Joseph and award-winning composer Richard Taylor are joined by composers Michael Betteridge, Jenny Gould, Matthew King, James Redwood and Omar Shahryar in a unique collaboration drawing together work developed with schools across London, Lancashire and the South East since 2014.

This powerful centenary event is made all the more poignant by its location in Brighton Dome, which served as an Indian Military Hospital during the war.

The Trench Brothers Exhibition will be at Newhaven Fort from 4 August to 5 November offering a creative response to the untold stories of ethnic minority soldiers in the First World War. For more information on the interactive exhibition, please see our EXHIBITION PAGE.

Trench Brothers was created with support from Heritage Lottery Fund.

Trench Brothers visits the National Memorial Arboretum as part of the Lichfield Festival!

4 July 2018, 6pm.

Performed in National Memorial Arboretum’s unique outdoor setting of remembrance, this inspiring and moving performance features MOBO nominated jazz singer Cleveland Watkiss, opera singer Damian Thantrey, puppetry and 120 local school children.

The Trench Brothers performance is a culmination of a project with local primary schools in which students explore the contributions of ethnic minority soldiers in the First World War though a series of workshops including artefacts handling, a visit from an Indian Army costumed interpreter, a composition session to set their Letters Home from a given soldier to music and puppet making to create their own force of Trench Brothers puppets. Their learning is supported by the Trench Brothers Education Zone offering contextual information and 90 lesson plans and activities linked to the curriculum

Trench Brothers also has a temporary exhibition at the NMA which is also FREE to visit – for more information please see our EXHIBITION PAGE.

Weavers Academy opened Creative Education Trust’s double Days of Shakespeare with Richard III; the drama and background narrative cleverly integrated in three ingenious twisting frames and several excellent performances: villainy never looked so good. Lynn Grove’s Romeo and Juliet proceeded from comedy to sorrow with elegance and charm. Caister’s As You Like it closed the first day; this complex tale of exile and disguise brought into relief by the students’ confident and energetic use of the stage. As the company of actors transformed themselves with props and sound and movement into the forest of Arden, a memorable image was created for everyone in Abbeyfield’s auditorium.

Abbeyfield themselves opened the second day with Julius Caesar; grand and classical in its themes of republican power and politics, but with an undertow of moral complexity and decadence. The exemplary diction of the sixth form actors was an inspiration to younger players in the audience. Thistley Hough re-cast Twelfth Night in the campsite of a rained-out music festival, Count Orsino importuning music, the food of love, to his iPhone while Olivia scowled at hers. Ash Green’s Macbeth drew outstanding performances by the leads, supported by a confident cast of witches and men. The Hart School’s Much Ado About Nothing reminded us that we were watching human fauna at play in pursuit of love, as an anoraked cast of birdwatchers returned iteratively to their binoculars.

The Days of Shakespeare was devised for Creative Education Trust by HMDT Music four years ago and includes early interventions on text and design by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Michael Corbidge and the designer Mark Friend. They have become treasured opportunities to perform some of the greatest works in English literature and design an absorbing visual spectacle. Most importantly, it is a chance for students to see what other schools in the trust have done and to witness their own creativity and skill in a wider perspective. Congratulations to the actors, designers and directors and an especial thank you to Richard Walker-Glen and his technical team at Abbeyfield School.

Artist Name: Jason RowlandArtist Role(s): Leader for Music TreehouseDate first worked with HMDT Music: 11/10/16

What you remember most:
The performance that I really remember was based on a photograph of a “lit grapefruit segment” (The SP theme that term was fruit!). It had 13 segments which led us straight in a time signature of 13/8. Each of the 3 groups had created a movement for the piece and each one led into the next and had overlapping moments. The rhythms and melodies created were quite complex and a real challenge for the group. The excitement and sense of achievement for the group after the performance was incredible and gave the group a real boost forward.

Project impact:
We had a session recently where a participant started to play the piano, something that he hadn’t shown an interest in before. As happens in this session he led the piece and the group followed. It has to be just one of the best musical moments so far. A duet started between him and a tutor whilst the rest of us gave accompaniment. There was everything you would want from a piece of music, dynamics, space, musical control and awareness. The piece lasted for a good 15 minutes and we all agreed afterwards that the piece could easily fit into our CD collections!

What do you like most about Music Treehouse?:
Music Treehouse is a fantastic project as whilst we have structure to our sessions they are musically led by the group. Their role is to create music with their instruments or voice and then go through the more traditional processes of refinement and rehearsal. We allow the group to make musical decisions and have control of everything that they do in the sessions which is something that they are not always able to do in their everyday life.

What else are you working on at the moment?:
I’m currently working with The Philharmonia on a music technology project, an SEND project with Snape Maltings writing new songs in response to the Friday Afternoon Songs, LPO and Trinity Laban’s Animate Orchestra and All in sound, a singing project for dementia sufferers.

Any advice to young artists wanting to work in the arts or music?
Work hard, have fun and opportunities will come to you.

Trench Brothers at NMA

We’re delighted that St Joseph’s RC Primary School, Lichfield and Blackwood School, Sutton Coldfield will be taking part in Trench Brothers this summer and performing with team of Cleveland Watkiss and Damian Thantrey in the grounds of The National Memorial Arboretum.

NMA’s centre of Remembrance offers a spiritually uplifting setting honouring the fallen and those who have sacrificed and given service, giving the project a unique new dimension for its first public outing. Alongside the performances on 4th July (which are the culmination of schools’ work with artefacts handling, a costumed interpreter, song writing and puppet making), our Trench Brothers Exhibition will be showcased in NMA’s temporary exhibition space which is expected to be visited by 40,000 people during the month of July.

In partnership with and

Thanks to support from

Trench Brothers South East

This new phase of the Trench Brothers’ journey includes a research project by local volunteers led by partners Strike a Light (link) to explore the impact the presence of the Indian Military Hospitals in Brighton and the British West Indies training camp at Seaford, had on local communities at the time. Our 18 volunteers will undertake research at The Keep, visit the Chattri Memorial and a tour of Seaford’s historical sites as part of their research which will lead to the creation of new exhibition material.

The Trench Brothers Exhibition will be shown in the extraordinary setting of Newhaven Fort’s Grand Magazine from August to November and will include both artwork and writings by local schools and the findings from the research project, supported by a programme of Family and Public events.

From April we will be working with 6-8 schools across Brighton, Newhaven and Lewes who will undertake a range of workshops and cross-curricular study in preparation for rehearsals in the Autumn term.

Trench Brothers at Brighton Dome will be a large-scale performance of the music theatre work by Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor, under the dome which housed an Indian Military hospital over a 100 years ago. It will involve nearly 300 children, musicians including students from our Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, Indian tabla and Sitar trio and artists Cleveland Watkiss and Damian Thantrey, directed by Clare Whistler and Freya Wynn-Jones. Creative Director Tertia Sefton-Green is expanding her libretto to include many Letter Songs by children who have participated across London and Lancashire since 2014, which will be orchestrated by Michael Betteridge, Matthew King, Jenny Gould, Omar Shahryar.

This promises to be an extraordinary event and tickets will be on sale soon.

Theory of Everything Creative, our new project with Creative Education Trust, engages their seven secondary Academies across the Midlands and Great Yarmouth in the creation and development of a new song-cycle. It is inspired by CET’s teaching methodology: Knowledge Connected which embraces key concepts of structure, pattern, meaning, performance, human interaction and practice.

In October 2017 20 Year 8 students from each school started the lyric writing process alongside professional writers Derek Martin, Peter Spafford, Harry Oulton and Shey Hargreaves. Each school was allocated a key concept and together they explored basic lyric writing techniques and styles before developing ideas and creating their own lyrics.

These lyrics are now being set to music by different Year 8 and 9 students supported by composers Matthew King, Jenny Gould, Michael Betteridge, John Webb and Richard Taylor. In these sessions, they are exploring different genres so that the students have ownership of their own ideas and input their own musical thoughts.

The finished songs will then be rehearsed by Years 7-9 choirs at each school before they all travel across the country to perform together at Abbeyfield School in Northampton on July 17th 2018. We are really looking forward to hearing what they have created – watch this space for an update!

The last 12 months of One Spirit activities have been very successful. The project has engaged over 200 young people/adults, delivering residencies in HMPs Aylesbury and Highdown and HMYOIs Feltham and Cookham Wood, and continues to work with young people/adults in the community in West, East and South London offering them further opportunities to increase their musical skills and get help and support with resettlement.

Working in custody, in general, has become more challenging over the last 12 plus months due to a number of factors: the shortages in prison staff across the whole sector has made the environment more volatile with increased security issues; the number of young people/adults in prison for violent crimes has risen, increasing the risk of violence within prisons themselves; and amidst the ever increasing need for education providers to succeed in the pay by results format OS has had to work harder to keep a space for arts based work.

A significant achievement for OS at HMYOI Feltham has been securing a separate workshop space in which to deliver its projects. It took almost 6 months, along with additional training, for OS to get the NVQ Hut in Feltham’s workshops area. The move has proved to be very successful and provided learners with a much calmer environment in which to work, and the participants have appreciated this; one young person commented “the environment was very calm and I felt I was able to be myself”. The quality of work, depth of engagement and general behaviour has increased and this has had a clear benefit for all participants. Another young person, frequently involved in fights with other yps, commented “There’s no point getting involved in stupid fights because if I do they won’t bring me down to you in the Hut”.

Projects at HMYOI Cookham Wood have continued to yield great results, with some participants winning Koestler Awards for their work. At HMP Highdown and Aylesbury OS has helped participants to apply entrepreneurial thinking to their musical work and enabled participants to make sense of what they can do with their musical skills once they leave custody.
93% of all OS participants in custody declared they felt better about the future after working with OS; 71% admitted feeling more motivated and self disciplined; 98% declared they felt generally more confident in themselves after working with OS. Of those who highlighted issues with anger and frustration 100% declared that working on the project had helped them to cope with these issues.
“I enjoyed working with the Hackney Music staff as they taught me a lot and helped me develop as a person”.

In the community OS has worked with a range of young people/adults on release, 31 in total, whose needs and progression varies enormously. One young person is about to complete a university degree and go into event management, some are finding their feet in the world of employment or further education and some are still struggling to avoid the influences and pitfalls that led them to prison in the first place. 84% of those on the Through the Gate program have not reoffended in 1+ year of release, 63% are in full or part time employment, 32% are in or have recently completed college/FE.

Do you enjoy singing, dancing and acting?

Come and join HMDT Music for a one-off I Can Sing! Taster on Saturday 24 March, and experience the excitement of music theatre, led by a fantastic team professional artists.

The morning will offer prospective I Can Sing! students the chance to watch a performance by current students, gain new skills, build confidence and make new friends!

Sessions will include singing, dancing and drama and require no previous experience. I Can Sing! is for ages 5 – 14 and draws on repertoire that includes classic Broadway numbers alongside our original commissions.

What are the timings?

11:30am – 12:30pm – Come and watch current I Can Sing! students in their end of term showing. A fantastic opportunity to see what it is all about!

12:30pm – 1:30pm – Group 1 Taster Session

12:30pm – 2:00pm – Group 2 Taster

We will assign you to a group based upon age and participant numbers, the week of 20 March. Each session will finish with an informal showing to parents so that they can see what the students have been working on!

The touring Trench Brothers Exhibition has enjoyed a fantastic stay at the Lancaster Maritime Museum and Fylde Gallery and is currently on display at Clitheroe Castle, alongside a programme of family events.

Phillipa & Eva

/ Visitor

Very interesting exhibition which I didn’t know anything about. Very factual and entertaining. Lovely work by the children.

It uses elements of the Trench Brothers project to introduce the context of soldiers from the Indian Army, British West Indies and black British soldiers. It focuses on stories of eight soldiers and shows some of the many responses from children participating in the project through art, creative writing and music.

Carla

/ Visitor

A moving exhibition. Well done.

On Remembrance Day itself, over fifty participants took part in a creative exercise where they constructed their own model Sopwith Camels to commemorate the life of Hardit Singh Malik, whose story is told in the exhibition.

Daphne

/ Visitor

Thank you for this exhibition. My grandfather died at the Neue Chappelle battle, and my great-uncle was shot at dawn, as a deserter. He was 19 and obviously suffering from shell-shock!

PLUS

The Exhibition will be shown at Newhaven Fort from August 2018. A large-scale commemorative performance of the Trench Brothers music theatre work will take place at Brighton Dome on 17 October 2018.

This video is one example of the culmination of HMDT Music’s TIME (Testing the Impact, Measuring the Effect) project. The final phase of TIME was for Queen Eleanor Primary Academy to develop its own project supported by guest artist visits and for this, they chose to focus on their school values and visions and find ways of expressing these through the arts with a view to creating a permanent record and display. We chose to explore a range of genres through music and the visual arts, and create art works to be displayed across the school together with songs representing each value and vision.

Year 2 were given Endeavour as their value and they chose to represent this through an animation about their class mascot, Engelburt the Elephant. They decided to use the character to demonstrate how endeavour fits in with their daily lives at Queen Eleanor Primary Academy.

You may have heard about the Music Treehouse, our SEN/D project that runs as part of our Saturday Programme – it’s offered for free but many of the students who desperately need to attend are unable to do so due to the cost of taking a weekly specialist taxi.

We have tried to cover this cost as much as possible but there are still many students that we are unable to help. This is where you come in – we’re asking you to help us provide the transportation that these young musicians need.

Every little helps and please feel free to share the link as much as possible – we’re hoping to meet our goal by Christmas!

We are competing for the Aviva Community Fund and we are through to the public voting stage. In order to secure a place in the final, we need to gather as many votes as possible during the voting period.

What are we hoping to fund?

Music Treehouse (MT) is for SEN/D children who have a wide spectrum of needs. It includes children who are isolated and struggle with issues around communication and interaction, who have profound Autism, difficulties with Mental and Emotional Health and sensory and physical disabilities. MT is a hugely important project for a community of young people and their families who struggle to find out of school activities that are accessible, engaging and life-enhancing. It provides a fun, secure, environment where children can learn and practice vital life skills, and are provided with a safe environment in which to develop their confidence and well-being.

Seeing a child’s face and the pride that they feel when they have the ability to make music is simply exhilarating and the health benefits of the sensory and kinaesthetic nature of music cannot be underestimated. Assisted by a specialist team, they learn to play and interact through creative music composition creating personal, and intricate pieces of music.

However, they really need specialist equipment which fulfils different needs as having the right instruments is hugely important. MT is still in its infancy but is already oversubscribed meaning we desperately need to purchase a collection of specialist instruments to supplement the ones we currently borrow. We currently have no electronic instruments, so can’t properly serve students with severe mobility disabilities and only a very limited range of standard percussion. A £5,000 grant would allow us to purchase a pool of instruments enabling us to create a fully inclusive ensemble and the impact would be immediate for our students.

• Large strengthened drums which students can sit on to feel the vibrations;• Tuned percussion with specialist mallets to facilitate grip for students with limited dexterity;• Kaoss Pads and amps for students with limited mobility;• Specialist non-tuned percussion: bracelet shakers, mark trees, afruches, and soundboards;• Nuvo clarinets, flutes and pBones: lightweight plastic instruments which can stand a lot of use, and are wonderful for students with more movement and less profound disabilities.

We currently have 40 core students at Music Treehouse, who would greatly benefit from this grant and a reach of over 100 more in collaboration with local special schools who are extremely supportive of the programme:

Teacher

/ Ickburgh School

My pupils are thrilled to take part. Their enthusiasm is outstanding and they love to tell their friends at school about MT. This has helped build their confidence and discover hidden talents they never thought they had!

The families of children with SEN/D often feel very isolated – the SP has a thriving and supportive community spirit with parents and students from across all programmes forming new friendship groups. The Programme is a place for families to meet other families in similar situations over coffee and cakes in our tuckshop. Likewise, the students not only have the opportunity to socialise with their group but also with the other students at the Programme. This social aspect is hugely beneficial to MT families’ well-being, with our staff always finding time for those who need a helping hand.

Music Treehouse Parent

A really happy environment to learn and have fun. My child so looks forward to attending – thank you for everything!

What we need you to do:

1. Visit our page & register CLICK HERE
2. You will be sent an activation link via email when you register (check spam).
3. Click that link & complete your profile.
4. Return to our page and use the VOTE button – you have TEN (10) votes so please make sure you use all TEN (10) for us!
5. Share this post or our Aviva page with your friends & family, encourage them to register and vote.

What else can I do to help?

We are also raising money for the Music Treehouse transport fund through GoGetFunding

HMDT Music is delighted to announce that the Brandenburg Choral Festival is supporting HMDT Music at one of their concerts in their Autumn 2017 Series. Taking place on the 5th November at 5pm in the beautiful St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, this concert given by the Minerva Consort and conducted by John Andrews, will feature Mendelssohn’s Hear my Prayer and a stunning A Cappella programme including music from Bach, Schütz and Eric Whitacre.

We hope that you will come and join us for a wonderful Sunday afternoon concert!

Tickets cost £23 (premium), £18 (unreserved) and Children £5.

To purchase tickets please visit this PURCHASE PAGE LINK which will ensure that a proportion of your ticket cost will go towards supporting HMDT Music.

We are pleased to announce that our latest batch of students to take their ABRSM exams have done very well, with all of our students passing their exam, with over half of them achieving a merit or distinction grade – a testament to our methodology and the hard work of our pupils and tutors.

Our “wholistic” approach to music education on our Saturday Programme centres around equipping young people with a knowledge of music that extends beyond their chosen instrument(s), through choir practice, theory lessons and classes in general musicianship. These results help to confirm that our proven methods work, with better results coming from students who do a full day at the Saturday Programme, beyond one-to-one lessons.

As with the last batch of results, we know that pupils whose parents felt able to help them were more likely to achieve a distinction or a merit over a pass grade. We hope that our recent introduction of the All-In-One Music Theory book, along with other resources that we will be looking to offer to parents, will help them feel confident enough to provide assistance in the run up to exams.

Finally, we would also like to extend our congratulations to the external students who came and took their exams at our centre.

The end of time is usually a cause for concern, but with the conclusion of our TIME project, the end of TIME (testing impact, measuring effect), is a chance to celebrate and reflect upon more than a year of hard work. The project saw as its conclusion the launch of a DVD and book, which detail the responses of the children of Queen Eleanor Primary Academy to their school’s vision and values.

Daniel Smith

Headteacher / Queen Eleanor Primary Academy

This project has been all about what it adds to our school and there is no doubt that the additions have been significant – both in terms of professional capital and collective achievement.

We worked with teachers throughout the year to deliver a way for them to enrich their own teaching by sharing our tried and tested methodology of embedding the arts within all aspects of the curriculum.

Daniel Smith

Headteacher / Queen Eleanor Primary Academy

The initial workshops helped to focus the teachers on the importance of skill development within the more creative subjects as well as to get to know their classes better as budding artists, musicians and actors.

Working together, the school decided that the end product would take the form of each class responding to a specific vision or value, through the arts. At the very start of the project, it would not have been possible to predict the enthusiasm and creativity that the children would display as the weeks and months passed. Each class worked with a composer to write and record a song that exemplified their value or vision, utilising a wide range of genres and influences including jazz, rap, gospel and soft rock.

Daniel Smith

Headteacher / Queen Eleanor Primary Academy

At the outset, it was really important to ensure that the work that we undertook complemented and indeed enhanced the school’s journey towards excellence whilst also providing something substantial and lasting. I am pleased that this has been the case. The use of our school vision and values as the subject matter certainly helped with this endeavour.

Alongside the song, each class worked on more varied projects that allowed them to explore their theme in greater detail with the help of a specialist in different artistic fields. This ranged from building a rhino sculpture to demonstrate Resilience…

The mighty rhino of Resilience!

to collaborative collages to celebrate Collaboration…

All hands on deck!

as well as photography, puppetry and animation.

The songs, recorded in a professional studio, are celebrated on a DVD to keep a lasting record of the pupils’ works. This, along with QEPA’s Fantastic Book of Values, will allow the school to look back at what they have achieved and serve as a positive reinforcement of their values and visions.

Daniel Smith

Headteacher / Queen Eleanor Primary Academy

I’m absolutely delighted with the quality of the finished articles.

For us, it has also been a valuable opportunity to evaluate our methodology in detail and assess its impact, as well as to develop it through CPD training to enhance teachers’ skills, an experience we are looking to expand and replicate.

We would like to extend our thanks to the staff and students of QEPA for their commitment to the project. The TIME project was funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, whose generosity made all of this possible, for which we are very grateful.

Trench Brothers is our First World War project that brings to life the lives of Black and Indian soldiers and commemorates their contributions. After running the project in schools around London, this summer saw the project taken on a tour around Lancashire in partnership with the Heritage Team at Lancashire County Council. The tour covered the length and breadth of the county, visiting primary schools from Blackpool to Burnley and was well extremely well received wherever it went, but don’t just take our word for it:

Justine North

/ Worsthorne

As a school located in a traditionally ‘White English’ village, we often find our children and families have little knowledge or empathy with other cultures. It has been valuable for our school to embrace the contributions made to the war effort by black soldiers.

We have been thrilled by the warm reception that the project received in every school that it visited. The pupils, teachers and parents showed our team nothing but a tremendous amount of appreciation and enthusiasm.

Students receive four workshops along with over 90 commissioned lesson plans, which inform their understanding of the topic by integrating learning about the First World War across the curriculum. You can learn more about this by clicking here.

For the tour, we partnered with several local organisations and performers to deliver the workshops.

The artefact handling workshop was provided by Lancashire County Council Heritage team:

Ruby Patel

/ St. Augustine’s

When the children wrote their diary extract, they wrote descriptively and passionately about their experience of being a soldier in the British army.

Justine North

/ Worsthorne

The children appreciate that there was a lot more to life in the war than fighting. It made them think more about life in the trenches.

Ranj Nagra played the role of an Indian Havildar to give students a first-hand experience of what life would have been like for young recruits.

Claire Clarke

/ Willow Lane

[One child] adored the Havildar session and stayed in role as a soldier throughout. She wrote an excellent piece in role as a Havildar talking about him and how he treated the other soldiers.

Led by puppeteers from the Horse and Bamboo Theatre, students crafted their own puppet in the likeness of an Indian or BWIR soldier.

A student from Piling St. John proudly shows off his BWIR puppet.

Colette Hardman

/ Reedley

Most of our children find art and craft skill difficult, however, Horse and Bamboo engaged the children with their step by step instructions. This allowed the children to keep focus, follow the instructions and complete the task that they are proud of.

Once all the workshops are complete, the students prepared for their final performance of our Trench Brothers music theatre piece by composers Julian Joseph, Richard Taylor and libretto by our own Creative Director Tertia Sefton-Green. They learnt the songs for the show, including their Letter Song about a given soldier they have written the lyrics for and set to music with a composer.

Justine North

/ Worsthorne

They learned that they can be song writers and composers. They gained confidence to sing in front of their peers and were proud to have their ideas included in the song.

On the day itself, our team of 8 turned up in each school with all the necessary equipment and, in the space of a few hours, got the children ready for their performance! We are delighted to say that each school put on a fantastic performance, one that will be recorded on our Legacy Site shortly.

Chris Allton

/ Cliviger

I could not believe the amount of time and resources provided to the school and the final product at the end.

Claire Clarke

/ Willow Lane

What an opportunity for our children! We have never done anything like this before at our school and I was astonished with the results. We loved learning our songs and taking part in a show with another year group. All the children were so proud of the part they’ve played and the feedback from parents has been amazing. One parent said ‘Best thing I’ve ever seen.,

The students of St. Francis of Assisi invited local veterans to watch the performance.

The schools involved in the project will also be contributing some of their work to the Trench Brothers exhibition, which will shortly begin its own tour of Lancashire starting on 10 August at Lancashire Maritime Museum. There, the children’s work will be found alongside fascinating memorabilia and displays that will bring the Trench Brothers experience to life.

Colette Hardman

/ Reedley

I have learnt from the staff provided new ways to engage children’s learning. I have developed as a teacher to engage students in new ways.

We would like to extend our thanks to all of our partners on this project, as well as the Heritage Lottery Fund, whose generous support made the project possible.

Jazz fans rejoice!

HMDT Music and the Julian Joesph Jazz Academy are offering an exciting new Summer Course.

Students will spend four days getting to grips with the building blocks of Jazz, familiarising themselves with these elements so that they have the confidence they need for improvisation and performance.

Held at Bridge Academy, the usual home of JJJA, this course has been carefully constructed by Alex Thomas-French using the well-loved methodology developed by the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy. Through intense study of jazz, students will learn what it means to be a jazz musician, their place in the world of jazz and how to work effectively with other musicians.

This is a wonderful opportunity for any aspiring jazz musicians to explore their passion in depth and to share that passion with others. Firm friendships are sure to be forged through the playing of jazz – friendships which will make the resulting performances all the much better.

If you know someone who might be interested, you can find more details on this website through the sidebar or by clicking HERE

HMDT Music created Future Doves, a new project that took place during the Spring 2017 term of the Saturday Programme, with support from Snape Maltings through their Friday Afternoons Project Fund. The project involved over 300 students from all across our Saturday programme; Fledglings, CYMH and I Can Sing! (ICS!), and tasked them with responding to the song cycle Seasons and Charms,the Friday Afternoons project commissioned from composer Jonathan Dove and writer Alasdair Middleton.

Working with choreographer Mia Okorafor and videographer Stacey Williams, the ICS! Juniors and Seniors spent a dance workshop creating a physical interpretation of two of the songs that CYMH sung. The resulting films were projected as a backdrop to the choral performances; a new opportunity for us to integrate ICS! and CYMH through digital media!

You can watch the resulting piece below!

About Friday Afternoons

The Friday Afternoons initiative began in 2013 with the aim of encouraging young people across Suffolk to sing Benjamin Britten’s collection of Friday Afternoons songs on what would have been the composer’s 100th Birthday. The project quickly grew, and it was immediately clear that groups from around the world were keen to explore this genre of music, so every year since then Snape Maltings (previously Aldeburgh Music) and Friday Afternoons have commissioned a new set of songs inspired by the original collection. What now exists is an ever growing collection of over 40 songs written specifically for young people’s voices, and a varied selection of repertoire available completely free to anyone who wishes to use it. To date, close to 80,000 young people have taken part in the project. To find out more and get involved, visit www.fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk

HMDT Music and the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy are proud to announce that this year five of our students have been accepted into the Jazz program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, two into the course at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, one into the program at Middlesex University with another to study composition at Birmingham Conservatoire!

Most recently, two of our brightest stars, Wilfie Williams and Karen Shiraishi have been awarded major scholarships to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, with a third student awaiting his results!* Wilfie has also received a scholarship to attend the Jazz program at The New School in New York City. They still need to find further funding to cover the rest of their fees, but we are all beaming with pride over their magnificent achievement!

Congratulations to all our students for putting the hard work in and showing their dedication and love for this music, you make us all so proud.

Julian Joseph

/ JJJA

Every student at JJJA matters to us, they are our greatest treasure and we want to support and build their confidence to create positively in the world with the magical beauty of Jazz.

*Berklee College of Music has an acceptance rate of 28%, which is 39% lower than the average for all music schools.

We are delighted to announce that our latest batch of students to take their ABRSM exams have done exceedingly well. The rate of Distinctions was an incredible 33%, with a further 35% achieving a Merit grade. All of our Saturday Programme students passed their exam – a testament to our methodology and the hard work of our pupils and tutors.

Our “wholistic” approach to music education on our Saturday Programme centres around equipping young people with a knowledge of music that extends beyond their chosen instrument(s), through choir practice, theory lessons and classes in general musicianship. These results help to confirm that our proven methods work, as shown by the fact that all the Distinctions came from students who do a full day at the Saturday Programme, beyond one-to-one lessons.

We know that pupils whose parents felt able to help them were more likely to achieve a distinction or a merit over a pass grade. To this end, we will be looking to improve the resources we can offer to parents to help them feel confident enough to provide assistance in the run up to exams.

Finally, we would also like to extend our congratulations to the external students who came and took their exams at our centre.

We’re pleased to announce that one of our I Can Sing! Junior 2s will be performing on the West End! Nerys Obeng has been selected as one of the children who will play the character of Tomika in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest musical, School of Rock, based on the 2003 film of the same name.

In the middle of what we’re sure is a busy rehearsal schedule, Nerys was kind enough to answer a few questions about what life has been like since leaving the Saturday Programme:

Can you tell me what your audition for School of Rock was like?

My audition for School of Rock was really nerve wracking as it was my debut but I got through it by believing in myself.

What are you most looking forward to about appearing in School of Rock?

I am most looking forward to performing live on stage and having lots of fun with my fellow cast mates.

What are you going to miss about I Can Sing!?

I am definitely going to miss my teachers and friends and the lovely musical atmosphere I enjoyed. But, I will be making loads of new friends and, of course, each day I will continue my schoolwork as I perform.

Do you have a favourite musical?

School of Rock is obviously my favourite! But, I enjoy watching pretty much all musicals.

Who are your favourite actors?

I’m not sure I could pick a favourite, but Jack Black is definitely one of them. He was so incredible in the film and I am really looking forward to working with David Finn and Gary Trainor, who play the same role (Dewey Finn) in our musical.

Do you have anything you want to say about the I Can Sing! programme?

I started with the I Can Sing! Saturday Programme and I feel I have really benefited from the great music teachers. Performing to an audience at the end of every term was something that boosted my confidence a lot. Fantastic! I wish I Can Sing! all the best.

We’re incredibly proud of Nerys and we also wish her all the best for the show!

If you’d like to hear more from Nerys and the rest of I Can Sing! Junior 2 talking about their experiences with the programme, then visit the I Can Sing! page and watch our video.

HMDT Music created Future Doves, a new project that took place during the Spring 2017 term of the Saturday Programme, with support from Snape Maltings through their Friday Afternoons Project Fund. The project involved over 300 students from all across our Saturday programme; Fledglings, CYMH and I Can Sing! (ICS!), and tasked them with responding to the song cycle Seasons and Charms, the Friday Afternoons project commissioned from composer Jonathan Dove and writer Alasdair Middleton.

Having allocated songs to each CYMH group who started work at the beginning of January, on our off-timetable day in February we brought in composer and workshop leader Paul Griffiths to work alongside our Orchestra and Jazz Orchestra to devise responses to two of the songs that the choirs are singing. Both groups continued to develop their creative response and performed them alongside the original songs at the end of term concert. Alongside these, we integrated the Charanga resources that Friday Afternoons had commissioned into our General Musicianship classes.

Working with choreographer Mia Okorafor and videographer Stacey Williams, the ICS! Juniors and Seniors spent a dance workshop creating a physical interpretation of two of the songs that CYMH sung. The resulting films were projected as a backdrop to the choral performances; a new opportunity for us to integrate ICS! and CYMH through digital media!

Music Treehouse (for students with SEN/D), our newest member of the Saturday Programme, also introduced students to the songs as a stimulus for creating new compositions. Led by animateur Jason Rowland, students used their voices and percussion instruments, as well as a real-time effect sampler touch-pads to develop skills in improvisation and composition. Their hard work culminated in a performance for their friends and families.

Future Doves culminated in a series of performances on 25 March in what was a vibrant and unique event! We’ll be uploading videos from the day over the next few weeks, so be sure to check back soon.

About Friday Afternoons

The Friday Afternoons initiative began in 2013 with the aim of encouraging young people across Suffolk to sing Benjamin Britten’s collection of Friday Afternoons songs on what would have been the composer’s 100th Birthday. The project quickly grew, and it was immediately clear that groups from around the world were keen to explore this genre of music, so every year since then Snape Maltings (previously Aldeburgh Music) and Friday Afternoons have commissioned a new set of songs inspired by the original collection. What now exists is an ever growing collection of over 40 songs written specifically for young people’s voices, and a varied selection of repertoire available completely free to anyone who wishes to use it. To date, close to 80,000 young people have taken part in the project. To find out more and get involved, visit www.fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk

When? Saturdays at 1:00pm – 3:30pmWhere? Haggerston School, Weymouth Terrace, E8What? Students will work with specially trained musicians and a music therapist to have fun creating music using a range of instruments and resources.How much? This branch of Music Treehouse is FREE

Music Treehouse is a two year project that will run on Saturdays for 10 sessions during the school term.
In the Autumn, the pilot project took place on: 5, 12, 19, 26 November 2016

Thanks to a generous grant from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, TIME enables us to work closely with Queen Eleanor’s Primary Academy in Northampton to both help develop their use of creativity and the arts across the curriculum and measure the impact of our methodology in embedding the arts, using skills development and performance projects.

HMDT News

Julian Joseph Jazz Academy - Duke Ellington Summer Course

Thanks to a generous grant from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, TIME enables us to work closely with Queen Eleanor’s Primary Academy in Northampton to both help develop their use of creativity and the arts across the curriculum and measure the impact of our methodology in embedding the arts, using skills development and performance projects.

New Saplings Programme at Music Treehouse: Interactive music making

Thanks to a generous grant from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, TIME enables us to work closely with Queen Eleanor’s Primary Academy in Northampton to both help develop their use of creativity and the arts across the curriculum and measure the impact of our methodology in embedding the arts, using skills development and performance projects.

One Spirit - Update March 2019

Thanks to a generous grant from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, TIME enables us to work closely with Queen Eleanor’s Primary Academy in Northampton to both help develop their use of creativity and the arts across the curriculum and measure the impact of our methodology in embedding the arts, using skills development and performance projects.

Following the success of our First World War project, Trench Brothers, which focusses on the contributions and achievements of ethnic minority soldiers, we are delighted to be expanding the project to Lancashire.

Working in partnership with the Heritage Learning Team of Lancashire County Council, Trench Brothers will be delivered in local primary schools supported by a new interactive touring exhibition and family events, inspired by the children’s response to the subject matter.

We are extremely grateful to Heritage Lottery Fund for its generous continued support of Trench Brothers.

HMDT News

Julian Joseph Jazz Academy - Duke Ellington Summer Course

Following the success of our First World War project, Trench Brothers, which focusses on the contributions and achievements of ethnic minority soldiers, we are delighted to be expanding the project to Lancashire. Working in partnership with the Heritage Learning Team of Lancashire County Council, Trench Brothers will be delivered in local primary schools supported by a new interactive […]

New Saplings Programme at Music Treehouse: Interactive music making

Following the success of our First World War project, Trench Brothers, which focusses on the contributions and achievements of ethnic minority soldiers, we are delighted to be expanding the project to Lancashire. Working in partnership with the Heritage Learning Team of Lancashire County Council, Trench Brothers will be delivered in local primary schools supported by a new interactive […]

One Spirit - Update March 2019

Following the success of our First World War project, Trench Brothers, which focusses on the contributions and achievements of ethnic minority soldiers, we are delighted to be expanding the project to Lancashire. Working in partnership with the Heritage Learning Team of Lancashire County Council, Trench Brothers will be delivered in local primary schools supported by a new interactive […]

We’ll Meet Again commemorated the 70th Anniversary of the Second World War, with performances and Art Exhibitions by Year 7 students from eight Secondary schools in Norfolk and The Midlands.

On 17 March 2016, over 200 students came together from across the country to perform We’ll Meet Again a new work comprising world premieres of new song-cycle commissions by writer Stephen Plaice and Composer Matthew King and revivals of excerpts from three existing HMDT Music commissions by composers Jonathan Dove and Matthew King and writers Alasdair Middleton and Tertia Sefton-Green.

Each section, allocated to a different school, represented various aspects of the War and with it a range of emotional experiences embracing themes of fear, humour, loss, friendship, family, patriotism, defiance and above all, as was overwhelming displayed by children living through the experiences of the Holocaust, that of hope.

The large-scale performance was preceded by local showings in schools and community venues, supported by Art Exhibitions showcasing work from each of the 8 participating schools in every venue.

We’ll Meet Again was developed by HMDT Music for Creative Education Trust

Video by Primo

HMDT News

Julian Joseph Jazz Academy - Duke Ellington Summer Course

We’ll Meet Again commemorated the 70th Anniversary of the Second World War, with performances and Art Exhibitions by Year 7 students from eight Secondary schools in Norfolk and The Midlands. On 17 March 2016, over 200 students came together from across the country to perform We’ll Meet Again a new work comprising world premieres of new song-cycle commissions by […]

New Saplings Programme at Music Treehouse: Interactive music making

We’ll Meet Again commemorated the 70th Anniversary of the Second World War, with performances and Art Exhibitions by Year 7 students from eight Secondary schools in Norfolk and The Midlands. On 17 March 2016, over 200 students came together from across the country to perform We’ll Meet Again a new work comprising world premieres of new song-cycle commissions by […]

One Spirit - Update March 2019

We’ll Meet Again commemorated the 70th Anniversary of the Second World War, with performances and Art Exhibitions by Year 7 students from eight Secondary schools in Norfolk and The Midlands. On 17 March 2016, over 200 students came together from across the country to perform We’ll Meet Again a new work comprising world premieres of new song-cycle commissions by […]

On Wednesday Evening, HMDT Music held a dinner and concert in the Parliament Chamber of the Inner Temple to celebrate our 20th Anniversary. Guests enjoyed performances from our patrons Natalie Clein and Julian Joseph, and students from the JJJA finished off the evening in style. The evening raised around £8,500 towards our 20th Anniversary Fundraising Campaign, which goes towards continuing to give young people a musical future.

We still have a long way to go to reach our £20,000 goal, so help us if you can! You can contribute towards the Campaign HERE.

HMDT Music, twice winner of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Education (2004 and 2008), is a leader in developing inspiring arts projects, which support other areas of learning. Working with world class artists and leading experts, HMDT increases access to high quality musical experiences by commissioning new performance works, developing resources, creating enduring partnerships, and sustaining an extensive outreach programme to schools and the community, particularly in areas of significant disadvantage and deprivation. Each new commission is underpinned by an education programme, which enriches participant experience, increases their skills, raises aspirations and has a transformative effect on other areas of learning and social interaction. We are delighted to be celebrating 20 Years! Please see the flyer below for more information, and visit our 20th Anniversary Campaign Page to book tickets to our Fundraising Dinner and Concert or to donate.

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, King Charles Court, Greenwich SE10 9JF

Young musicians were invited to join Trinity Laban and the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy for 3 days of jazz exploration. They worked alongside internationally acclaimed jazz star Julian Joseph and a team of top jazz musicians and educators to improve musicianship, ensemble playing and improvisation, and learn about influential figures that have shaped the genre of jazz.

To take part in the project, pupils had to be of secondary school age up to 18, and a minimum of grade 3 or equivalent standard on their chosen instrument. Singers and players of any instrument were welcomed, and it was designed for both experienced jazz players and jazz first timers who were keen to learn!

Over the past term HMDT Music has been working with Abbeyfield School in Northampton on a Music and Literacy project. This project saw three groups of year 7s working with the world renowned beat-boxer Shlomo to create their own pieces of work ready for performance at the end of their 5 day project. The project started off with an introductory session where the three groups came together for a fantastically exciting and explosive beat-boxing introduction by Shlomo. The excitement was palpable in the room, and looks of disbelief at what a voice could do! (Not only from the students either!). Students then had two lyric writing sessions, and two composition sessions before the final rehearsals. The project concluded with a fantastic performance in front of their families and friends where they showcased their new beat-boxing skills and their compositions. The audience was already overwhelmed by the whole experience, when Shlomo gave an impromptu performance at the end as well!

Heritage Lottery Fund’s Understanding WW1 Event

Trench Brothers made a great impact at Heritage Lottery Fund’s Understanding WW1 event at the Houses of Parliament yesterday, after which local MP David Burrows tweeted that the puppets were the star attraction! HMDT Music’s Creative Director Tertia Sefton-Green and Projects Coordinator Helen Kelly are pictured with David Burrows MP, historian Dan Snow and Carole Souter Chief Executive of Heritage Lottery Fund and with Dr Andrew Murrison MP. We’re delighted to have the Little Angel Theatre as partners to share their amazing puppet-making skills!